Estancia Capital Partners, L.P. ("Estancia"), a leading private equity
fund focused exclusively on the global asset management, wealth
management and related business services industries, announced today
that it has closed on its strategic growth capital investment in Snowden
Capital Advisors LLC ("Snowden"). Snowden represents Estancia's fourth
investment from its inaugural fund Estancia Capital Partners, L.P. Terms
of the investment were not disclosed.

Snowden is a nationally branded, open-architecture, hybrid SEC (News - Alert)
registered investment adviser and broker-dealer that provides wealth
advisory services to individuals, families, and institutional clients.
Snowden will use the invested capital to continue recruiting exceptional
financial advisory teams in selected markets. Snowden is headquartered
in New York City and currently has additional offices in California and
Connecticut.

"Estancia continues to execute on its plan of investing in leading asset
management, wealth management and related business services companies
positioned to capitalize on positive industry secular trends. We believe
Snowden has one of the most experienced management teams in the wealth
management space providing the expertise and insight to take advantage
of the financial advisor movement toward independence, investors' desire
for higher fiduciary standards and conflict-free advice, and the stron
cultural implications of advisors owning meaningful equity in their
business that creates better alignment among clients, advisors,
management and other stakeholders," said Takashi Moriuchi, a Partner at
Estancia.

Added Danny Kang, a Partner at Estancia, "Snowden represents a solid
wealth management investment for our developing portfolio and we now
have investments in all of our core industry verticals. With our growth
capital funding, Snowden offers a robust and seamless platform solution
for financial advisors seeking increased independence by way of leaving
the legacy wirehouse firms. Cerulli Associates has predicted the advisor
market share at the four largest wirehouses will decrease to 34% in 2014
from 48% in 2007. We expect this secular trend to continue beyond 2014
and we are thrilled to be a meaningful capital partner enabling Snowden
to opportunistically execute its plan in the company's additional target
markets."

Estancia is a private equity firm focused on small to lower middle
market investments in Institutional Quality asset management, wealth
management and related business services firms. The Principals - Messrs.
Mendez, Moriuchi, Kang and Kurttila - have a history of partnering with
management and investment teams in providing equity, growth and working
capital to facilitate strategic development of portfolio companies
including management buy-outs from larger financial firms, private
ownership/succession transitions, growth initiatives and investment team
lift-outs. Estancia is currently investing its first institutional fund,
Estancia Capital Partners, L.P., on behalf of a diversified base of
approximately 40 Limited Partners.